Test card girl 'bemused' by her return to British television

She has clocked up more air time on television than anyone else. But for
Carole Hersee, her return to our screens after an absence of more than 10
years has come as a complete surprise.

The test card girl, Carole Hersee, had no idea she was returning to TV screensPhoto: PA

By Roya Nikkhah, Arts Correspondent

6:36PM GMT 10 Jan 2009

Miss Hersee, better known as the "Test Card girl", said she was "bemused" that the BBC had reintroduced its most famous test card, which features her as an eight-year-old girl playing noughts and crosses on a blackboard with a toy clown.

"I had absolutely no idea it was being brought back," she said. "The BBC didn't tell me anything about it. I thought it had all gone away for good, but I suppose I don't mind that it is being brought back."

Miss Hersee, 50, who lives in the New Forest, Hants, with her mother and her two teenage children, said that she was surprised the BBC had not updated the image.

"I am a bit bemused as I would have thought they would want to modernise it, but if they feel it is suitable to use after all these years, then fine," she said. "I suppose the feeling of nostalgia is all around at the moment."

The BBC test card, known as Test Card F, which shows Miss Hersee wearing a red shirt and red hairband, and Bubbles, the clown, surrounded by colour scales and test graphics, was transmitted from 1967 to 1998. Designed by Miss Hersee's father, George Hersee, a BBC engineer, it is being broadcast again on the BBC's high definition (HD) channel to help viewers tune their HD sets, and is currently shown for 90 seconds every two hours when programmes are not on air. Technicians have rescanned the card in HD to allow viewers to set the colour, contrast and sharpness on modern televisions.

Related Articles

"I haven't actually seen the image on television for about 10 years and we don't have an HD television so I would have to go into one of those electrical shops that sells televisions to see it, but I suspect if I did do that, I would just cringe and walk out," said Miss Hersee, a film and theatre costume maker, who has worked on films including The Last Emperor and Dangerous Liaisons and the west end production of The Phantom of the Opera.

"My children think it is amusing that the test card is back and they are more excited about it than I am."

Test Card F has been broadcast for an estimated 70,000 hours since it was first shown on BBC 2 in 1967, and Miss Hersee, who was paid around £100 by the BBC when the image first appeared, is thought to hold the record for the most TV appearances by a single person.

"I think it [the record] is staggering, and now it has been brought back, there is no hope for anyone else to get anywhere near that record," she said. "When we did it, nobody thought it would last for more than a few years, because none of the other test cards had."

Miss Hersee said that she believed her father, who died in 2001, would be "proud" to see the return of his test card.

"I think my father would also be surprised that the BBC have decided to use it again," she said. "But I think he would be quite proud of the fact that something he'd done so long ago has been brought back. I'd think he'd be smiling at the achievement that yet another generation will see his work."